Crop Production Week | Check-off fees could be doubled as flax commission deficits mount
The Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission is in deep financial trouble and will be asking growers to double the amount they pay in check-off dollars.
The producer group posted a deficit of $158,242 for the year ended July 31, 2011, and is forecasting a similar-sized shortcoming of $147,700 for 2011-12.
Declining revenue is blamed on a significant reduction in acres since the discovery of Triffid, a genetically modified flax variety, was found in a Canadian shipment to Europe.
The commission has taken steps to cut back on expenses.
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No new research projects are being funded in 2011-12, and the board has cut back on meeting expenses by relying on conference calls. As well, the board is negotiating new contracts with the commission’s executive director and her staff for much reduced time commitments.
“SaskFlax cannot cut our expenses any further before it ceases to be able to undertake any new research. We may have difficulty meeting commitments to projects already being done,” chair Lyle Simonson told delegates attending the commission’s annual convention during the first day of Crop Production Week in Saskatoon.
“If we experience decreased acres in 2012, we will be forced to access our reserves that have been built up over the last several years.”
That is why the commission is proposing a doubling of the producer levy to six cents per bushel.
Simonson noted that the checkoff hasn’t increased since the commission was formed in 1997, when flax prices were around $6 per bu. Today’s prices are twice that amount.
The proposed new checkoff works out to about 0.5 percent of the value of the crop, assuming an average price of $12 per bu. That is half of what Saskatchewan’s pulse growers pay.
The commission plans to hold a special meeting in the next two to three months, where the province’s flax producers will vote on the check-off increase. They will be notified at least 15 days before the meeting.
“I’m hoping that producers will support us,” said Simonson.
The commission also hopes producers and seed growers will support an initiative to replace supplies of CDC Bethune and CDC Sorrel with reconstituted seed starting this spring.
Breeder seed of the two most popular flax varieties grown on the Prairies was found to be infected with Triffid.
Breeders at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre grew out the original breeder seed, tested the plants for Triffid and sent the Triffid-free seed to GM-free New Zealand in the winter of 2011 for multiplication.
That seed was further multiplied in Canada last year, tested and shipped back to New Zealand for further multiplication this winter.
It will return to Canada this spring, where it will be distributed to select seed growers to multiply further in 2012 and 2013. The goal is to distribute the reconstituted seed to farmers in the spring of 2014.
SaskFlax director Dave Sefton said seed growers will face a number of stipulations, including planting it only on land that has not seen a flax crop for at least five years. They will also be asked to dispose of all old supplies of Bethune and Sorrel after the 2013 seed selling season.
The commission will be asking all flax producers to dispose of farm-saved Bethune and Sorrel and start over with certified seed of the reconstituted varieties in the spring of 2014.
“Hopefully, Triffid will never show it’s ugly head again,” he said.
Sefton said it is critical that growers co-operate with the initiative.
“If we’re ever going to get rid of seed testing and ship testing, this is our only hope,” he said.
“It will be an investment in the future by flax growers and seed growers.”
